Don Noel, a longtime political columnist for The Hartford Courant who not too long ago stunned his mates by writing his farewell on Fb, died Monday. He was 93.
As the previous editor of The Hartford Occasions earlier than becoming a member of The Courant, Noel ranked among the many state’s high journalists in his heyday as he wrote columns about main political figures like Governors William A. O’Neill, Lowell P. Weicker, and John G. Rowland.
Noel’s passing got here after the latest deaths of two different journalistic stalwarts of that period : Tom Monahan of Channel 30 and Mark Davis of WTNH, Channel 8. All three have been revered as veteran reporters who personally knew scores of politicians and high political leaders throughout the state.
Noel surprised lots of his colleagues with an in depth farewell observe on June 22 on Fb, the place he has greater than 1,000 mates.
“Why ‘remaining”?” Noel wrote. “A number of have requested. I’m within the fifth day of not consuming or consuming, to hasten my dying. After I was recognized with neuropathy a long time in the past, I used to be instructed to count on a protracted sluggish lack of mobility, and so it has been. I want human and mechanical assist for most simple features. Forward are additional intrusions into self-sufficiency. I select to not go there.”
He added, “I’ve had a beautiful life, joined for 65 years by a beautiful spouse. I’ve, I hope, earned no less than among the journalistic prizes and plaudits given me, and I hope I’ve been in a position to contribute one thing to the entire numerous communities by which I’ve lived and labored. I depart a happy man.”
After an outpouring of written remarks by 157 of his mates, Noel posted once more on June 23.
“Because of all 157 of you,” he wrote. “I’m embarrassed, chastened, buoyed up. Somebody quoted Campbell : dwelling in reminiscences of these left behind is to not die. I’m grateful for that thought.”
Journalists, politicians and mates responded to Noel’s submit, thanking him for his candor.
“That is troublesome to learn and painful to consider,” wrote former Courant columnist and radio host Colin McEnroe. “For many years, you set a typical that almost all of us struggled to reside as much as. You could have mobility points now, however you all the time walked the stroll. You instructed the reality; you caught to your rules; and you probably did it with grace. And now, even your remaining exit is swish. Thanks for giving the remainder of us an opportunity to inform you how a lot your work and your instance meant to us.”
One other former Courant columnist, Dan Haar, wrote, “To the tip, you might be an inspiration. I keep it up in your outdated job with awe and love and respect for all you’ve achieved connecting folks and concepts and the message of what’s proper, with readability and feeling that nearly nobody can match — actually not me. Farewell good friend and mentor.”
Former state senator and gubernatorial candidate Invoice Curry, whose household lived subsequent door to Noel in Hartford when Curry was 12 years outdated, visited his good friend not too long ago and remarked about his multifaceted life. A world traveler, Noel lived along with his household for a 12 months in Cambodia and Romania after successful a journalistic fellowship, and the household visited Russia, India, Jordan, Japan, Austria and Greece, amongst others.
“I actually love the person. He’s one of the crucial exceptional folks I’ve ever met,” Curry instructed The Courant in an interview. “He bicycled to The Courant by means of downtown Hartford streets. … He had a home in Jamaica. He was in Israel not very a few years after its founding. It was a tremendous life that he led. Whip good. He might sit and take heed to the longest and most technical presentation, and when it was concluded, simply write down a abstract that was proof-perfect.”
Curry added, “In case you thought there was no such factor as a Renaissance Man within the twenty first century, there he was. The place he discovered a lot vitality for household, for work, for neighborhood, for bodily recreation, for his religious life. I don’t know anybody who did all of that so absolutely and so effectively.”
MICHAEL McANDREWS / Hartford Courant
Former Hartford Courant political columnist Don Noel, left, speaks with Hartford mayoral candidate Luke Bronin, proper, and Andrew Grant whereas Bronin was canvassing Hartford’s North Finish on July 23, 2015.
Longtime Hartford resident
A Hartford resident for 50 years, Noel lived along with his spouse, Elizabeth Brad Noel, within the North Finish in an African-American and Jamaican neighborhood on Ridgefield Road. They later moved in 2016 to Bloomfield to reside within the Seabury retirement neighborhood and have been married for 65 years.
Brad, who died at age 88 in 2019 from problems of Alzheimer’s Illness, was well-known in Hartford as a steering counselor at Weaver Excessive Faculty and later as a member of the varsity board for 4 phrases.
He’s survived by his daughter, Emily, her husband, Tim Sullivan, and their grandson, TJ, who graduated from Yale College and have become a documentary filmmaker.
A graduate of Cornell College with a level in American research, Noel traveled along with his household as an Alicia Patterson Fellow in 1966 to Cambodia and Romania. The household later left Bucharest and went tenting in Russia earlier than returning dwelling.
Throughout 17 years on the now-defunct Hartford Occasions, he served as editorial web page editor for six years and spent a 12 months as the highest editor on the newspaper. He additionally labored in tv for 10 years at WFSB, Channel 3, together with internet hosting the “Face The State” program that’s nonetheless broadcast on Sunday mornings. Later in life, he grew to become chairman of the ACLU of Connecticut.
When Noel retired after 12 years at The Courant in 1997, longtime Courant columnist Denis Horgan wrote a column that fondly remembered his good friend.
“In a dozen years right here, some extra at a tv station and lots of extra on the long-gone Hartford Occasions, Don O. Noel Jr. moved with surety, self-assurance and magnificence throughout the state’s political vistas,” Horgan wrote. “As completely should occur over such a span, he trod on toes, left and proper. This isn’t a man who was going to be buffaloed by some here-today, gone-tomorrow politico or occasion hack — though they tried their feeble finest to just do that many times. His direct and enduring class was constructed atop a basis of granite: He was representing one thing much more necessary than the politician with fleeting authority earlier than him. He was standing in for the reader, for the general public. Fools didn’t prosper beneath his gaze.”
Carolyn Lumsden, who labored with Noel within the days when The Courant had 17 folks working for the editorial web page, mentioned, “Don was distinctive. He dressed like a gentleman with a recent flower in his lapel. He took the position in conferences of a Socratic instructor, questioning our concepts to sharpen our writing. He instructed the funniest jokes – till political author David Fink arrived. Then it was a tie.”
Lumsden added, “I later came upon he was a gifted short-story author and excellent gardener. He cared so deeply in regards to the neighborhood. We received’t see his type any time quickly.”
Christopher Keating will be reached at ckeating@courant.com
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